Thursday, June 28, 2007

THE ROBERTS SUPREME COURT

In just one term, the new Supreme Court has gutted decades of progressive-friendly precedent and made it clear that George W. Bush's longest-lasting legacy may be the appointments of Justices Roberts and Alito.

Tossing away any notion of stare decisis like a used condom, the new conservative majority -- Roberts, Alito, Scalia, Thomas, and Kennedy -- have brazenly flexed their new power by weakening crucial parts of even sacred opinions like Brown v. Board of Education. Just this week, they've delivered major victories to big business, decimated the speech rights of youth, and weakened taxpayers' rights to sue the government.

Justice Kennedy's reluctance to give Chief Justice Roberts a blank check is the only thing preventing the federalists and originalists from completely controlling the judicial branch and making the Death Star operational.

I'm still reading today's 185-page opinion in Parents v. Seattle in which the High Court struck down high school assignment policies in Seattle and Louisville that sought to integrate city schools by using race as a factor to diversify schools in relatively-segregated neighborhoods.

After skimming through it, the opinion doesn't seem to totally decimate every affirmative action policy or overrule the Court's decision in Grutter v. Bollinger, which upheld the use of race in law school admissions.

However, the opinion boldly trumpets the conservatives' "color-blind Constitution" ideology, which right-wing racists have been praying for the Supreme Court to adopt in order to disembowel major accomplishments of the modern civil rights movement.

I'll update this over the next few days as I digest everything and have my head reattached to my neck.